Self-supporting Marker Buoy

ABSTRACT

A self-supporting marker buoy includes an upper unit, a lower unit, and a rim-engaging cover. The upper unit is a frustum which further includes a base opening facing downwards, a hollow center, and a base rim around the base opening. The lower unit is an upside-down frustum, which further includes a top opening facing upwards, a hollow center, a top rim around the top opening, and a water entry at the bottom of the lower unit. The radius of the base opening of the upper unit is less than that of the top opening of the lower unit.

1. FILED OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a maker buoy; and, in particular, it relatesto a self-supporting marker buoy that floats stably by itself in wateror stands in well balance on land, dispensing with a ballast-likeobject.

2. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART

Marker buoys are used quite often to delimit the boundary for a pre-setarea. Meanwhile, marker buoys seen in the market are generally made offloating materials such as Styrofoam, which are bound together with aheavy object via a line to make marker buoys float over the water withinlimits and without being drifting away.

The disadvantage of above-mentioned traditional marker buoys is thatthey are tied with a heavy object as a ballast, which requires morespace for storage and is also less convenient in use.

3. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention therefore improves over conventional prior artsand provides a self-supporting marker buoy which is dispense with anextra ballast object. The unique design in the present invention doesnot require complicated implementation, either. The self-supportingmarker buoy of the present invention is able to float over water withsufficient balance and serves as a target locator. The small volume thismarker buoy has requires only a small storage space; and the simpledesign it has also makes it a lot easier to operate.

A self-supporting marker buoy disclosed in this application refers to adevice, which is used to locate a target position in the water, includesan upper unit and a lower unit. Each of the upper unit and the lowerunit is surrounded by an outer rim. An interface is used to engageborder areas of the two rims together to make a shell-like marker buoywith a hollow center. A water hole is disposed at the bottom of thelower unit for water to come into the marker buoy. The marker buoy isable to float stably over the water whenever the air pressure inside thebuoy is greater than the water pressure inside the buoy. Unlikeconventional marker buoys, no ballasts are required in this invention.

To be more specific, the marker buoy disclosed in this applicationincludes an upper unit, a lower unit, and a rim-engaging cover. Each ofthe upper unit and the lower unit further includes a base rim and a toprim, respectively. The upper unit and the lower unit is engaged via aninterface which engages the base rim to the top rim to become ashell-like object with a hollow center. A water hole is disposed at thebottom of the lower unit for water to come in. Nevertheless, wheneverthe inside air pressure is greater than the inside water pressure, nomore water can come into the marker buoy anymore. Meanwhile, the makerbuoy is able to float stably over the water by carrying sufficientweight of water inside. Thus, the marker buoy functions well to serve aslocation marker in the water.

Preferably, the lower unit is of the shape of an upside-down frustum,while the upper unit is of the shape of a frustum. Accordingly, theoverall shape of the marker buoy has a narrower top and wider base,which is well designed for balancing purpose.

Preferably, the interface between the upper unit and the lower unit ismade of a tender and resilient materials.

Preferably, the interface between the upper unit and the lower unit isimplemented as an elastic clip-on.

Preferably, to allow outside water to come quickly into the marker buoy,an air-flowing hole is disposed on the side of the lower unit.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: An exploded view of the first preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2: An assembly view of the first preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 3: A view of the first preferred embodiment of the invention inwater.

FIG. 4: A view of the first preferred embodiment of the invention onground.

FIG. 5: A view of the first preferred embodiment of the invention withair-flowing hole disposed on the side wall.

FIG. 6: An exploded view of the second preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 7: An assembly view of the second preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 8: A view of the second preferred embodiment of the invention inwater.

5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Referring to FIG. 1, a marker buoy 4 includes an upper unit 1, a lowerunit 2, and a rim-engaging cover 3. The upper unit 1 of a shape of afrustum (i.e. a cone with the point cut off), which further includes abase opening facing downwards, a hollow center, and a base rim 11 aroundthe base opening.

Corresponding to the upper unit in shape, the lower unit 2 is of a shapeof an upside-down frustum, which further includes a top opening facingupwards, a hollow center, a top rim 21 around the top opening, and awater entry at the bottom of the lower unit. The radius of the baseopening of the upper unit is less than that of the top opening of thelower unit.

The rim-border-engaging cover 3, made of tender and elastic materialsand also has the shape of a rim, is used to seal and cover the border ofboth the base rim 11 and the top rim 21. Therefore, the length andradius of rim-border-engaging cover 3 is decided by those of the baserim 11 and the top rim 21.

In assembling, the upper unit 1 is first assembled with the lower unit 2by having the base rim 11 of the upper unit 1 engage with the top rim 21of the lower unit 2. The rim-engaging cover 3 then covers and seals upthe border of both the base rim 11 and the top rim 21 that are exposedoutside and have the largest radius of the base rim 11 and the top rim21, respectively. FIG. 3 shows an assembled marker buoy disclosed inthis application.

When in water, the marker buoy 4 illustrated in FIG. 3 allows water 5 tocome inside through the water entry 22 at the bottom of the lower unit2. When the air pressure inside the marker buoy 4 becomes greater thanthe hydraulic pressure of the water inside the marker buoy 4, no morewater can enter the marker buoy 4 through the water entry 22 any more.In other words, when the air pressure inside the marker buoy 4 becomesgreater than the hydraulic pressure of the water inside the marker buoy4, it essentially blocks any water to come into the marker buoy 4, eventhough the water entry is implemented in this application as an openingwhich could never be realistically turned off.

Referring to FIG. 4, the marker buoy is also easily adapted to ground 6,which stands in well balance for making a boundary.

Referring to FIG. 5, preferably, an air-flowing hole 23 is disposed at apre-determined height of the side wall of the lower unit 2. Due to theopposing air flowing effect originated from the air-flowing hole 23,water 5 can come quickly into the marker buoy to make air pressurelarger than air pressure inside of buoy for a better balance.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the rim-engaging cover 3 in FIG. 1 can also beimplemented as a clip-on 3′, as shown in FIG. 6. The clip-on has anopening channel or trough facing inwards (i.e. facing towards the centerof the marker buoy), which tightly snap both the base rim 11 of theupper unit 1 and the top rim 21 of the lower unit 2 into the trough, asshown in FIG. 8.

Still referring to FIG. 8, when in water, some water 5 comes into thebuoy 4 through the water entry 22. When the air pressure inside themarker buoy 4 becomes greater than the water pressure inside the markerbuoy 4, it essentially blocks water 5 to come into the marker buoy 4. Inthe meantime, the marker buoy contains enough water inside for balancingitself without extra support.

1. A marker buoy, which includes an upper unit, which further a baseopening with a radius B facing downwards, an upper hollow center, and abase rim around said base opening; a lower unit, which further includesa top opening with a radius T facing upwards, a lower hollow center, atop rim around said top opening, and a water entry at the bottom of saidlower unit; and a rim-border-engaging cover.
 2. The marker buoy asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said upper unit is of the shape of a frustumwith a height of U, and said lower unit is of the shape of anupside-down frustum with a height L, wherein L is less than L, and saidradius B of said base opening is less than said radius T of said topopening.
 3. The marker buoy as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidrim-border-engaging cover is made of tender and resilient materials. 4.The marker buoy as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rim-border-engagingcover is an elastic clip-on.
 5. The marker buoy as claimed in claim 1,wherein an air-flowing hole is disposed at a pre-determined height ofsaid lower unit.